Layer palletiser, palletising robot, COBOT, a few points to help you make your choice.
Robotic palletising cell, equipped with an EXCALIBUR® pallet layer cutting machine
To be transported, most products are placed on a pallet. Successful palletising is essential to guarantee the rest of the logistics process.
To automate their palletising process, manufacturers can install palletisers at the end of the line to automatically place the products on the pallet. By completing the packaging line, palletisers save a great deal of time when palletising goods.
There are several types of palletiser on the market, and the industry is constantly innovating to handle products as diverse as cardboard boxes, bags, packs of bottles, packets, trays, etc.
FAMILIES OF AUTOMATIC PALLETISERS
Two main families of palletisers have emerged over the decades.
To choose the technology best suited to their needs, manufacturers need to review their requirements (line versatility, speed, footprint, etc.) and take into account the specific characteristics of the packages to be palletised.
What are the two main families of palletisers?
1 – CONVENTIONAL LAYER PALLETISERS
In the case of layer palletisers, the product layer is prepared prior to palletising: the parcels, assembled in whole layers, are placed on a tray whose opening allows them to be placed, layer by layer, on the pallet.
There are two types of conventional palletiser:
- High-level layer palletisers (top entry)
These are designed so that the wooden pallet receives the layers of parcels on the upper level, then descends as the layers are added.
- Low-level layer palletisers (low entry)
These palletisers are designed so that the wooden pallet remains on the lower level, and the layers of packages are added higher and higher.
When the palletising plan requires the insertion of non-slip interleaf formats between the layers of packages to ensure their stability, a dedicated gripper must be installed in the line,often equipped with vacuum pumps, suction cups and other pneumatic components. Its sole function is to pick up pre-cut insert formats, which are placed in whole stacks. To find out more, read how a key European player in the manufacture of breakfast cereals succeeded in automating its entire palletising chain in a warehouse.
In place of this shop, an EXCALIBUR® interleaf cutting machine fed with reels of STABULON® anti-slip paper can also be installed. This cutter will cut the formats one by one, as and when required by the palletiser, and present a single interleaf format on its conveyor table.
Find out more about how a key European player in the manufacture of breakfast cereals has succeeded in automating its entire palletising chain;
2 – PALLETISING ROBOTS
In the case of palletising robots, most of the line is located on the ground floor. The palletising robot is enclosed in a safety enclosure to protect the operators.
The palletising robot is equipped with one or more gripping heads to perform different palletising tasks at the same time:
- Picking up packages and placing them on the pallet according to a defined palletising plan.
- Possibly picking up wooden or plastic pallets from the pallet racks to place them where the layers of packages will be made up.
Between each layer, the robot may have to place a paper insert such asSTABULON® to ensure the pallet’s stability .
The robot then draws from a stack of dividers placed in a magazine within the robot cell. In place of this magazine, an EXCALIBUR® div ider fed with reels of STABULON® anti-slip paper can also be installed. This cutter will cut the formats one by one, as and when required by the palletising robot. It will present only one format at a time on its conveyor table.
PALLETISER vs. ROBOT PALLETISER, HOW DO YOU MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICE?
Robots are flexible, layer palletisers are fast. Each of the two families of palletisers has its advantages.
Robotic palletisers are often a cheaper solution than layer palletisers. They are a good way for manufacturers to enter the world of automation. Quite flexible, they can be fed by several packaging lines at the same time and palletise several pallet sizes at the same time.
However, since by their very nature they have several roles to play (picking packages, picking layer pads, depositing pallets, etc.), the cycle times for palletising robots are limited. Furthermore, the more the number, shape and nature of the objects to be handled vary, the more complex and heavy the gripper will be. Its cost can represent a significant proportion of the overall cost of the robotic cell.
Because they handle whole layers of packages at a time, the greatest advantage of layer palletisers is their speed. Some palletisers can palletise up to 10 layers per minute. Highly reliable by reputation, they offer optimum product protection.
INCREASINGLY BLURRED BOUNDARIES BETWEEN CONVENTIONAL PALLETISERS AND ROBOT PALLETISERS.
Today, the boundaries between palletiser families are not very clear-cut. Because mixing and matching has always produced beautiful children, in recent years palletiser manufacturers and integrators have begun to combine technologies to get the best from each of the two families.
For example, we are increasingly seeing palletising lines equipped with robots, with highly sophisticated grippers, to pick up entire layers of packages prepared upstream and achieve significant productivity gains.
COLLABORATIVE ROBOTS OR COBOTS DEDICATED TO PALLETISING APPLICATIONS
To find out more about AUTOMATIC PALLETISING SOLUTIONS :